Breath
by fanwriter1245
Summary: *Excuse the scientific inaccuracy. I tried* When the results of a case study end in medulla failure, Peter and Olivia must try to figure out what happened and why in order to prevent another death. Throughout the case, the two of them must also decipher their own feelings for one another. *Takes place after the events of Season 1: Midnight*


**Fringe: **Breath

Based on characters created by J.J. Abrams

Wendy Parkinson sat in her favorite restaurant, talking with the bartender. She was a regular there and knew almost everyone by name.

"Sam," she laughed, "you're embarrassing me!"

"Come on, Wendy!" the bartender replied. "Just one date! You won't regret it!"

"I told you! I just can't!"

"Do you have a boyfriend or something?"

"No! But I might have my eye on someone."

"Aw, come on! Who is the guy who gets a date with someone as stubborn as you?"

"Well, I think he's asking me on a date right now."

Sam paused, still smiling. "That's not funny, Wendy."

She laughed again, pleased with how this night was turning out. Suddenly she stopped laughing as she cleared her throat and coughed a little. Sam noticed her changing face.

"Hey, Wen, are you alright?"

"I don't know…I…" Wendy started to hyperventilate extremely fast, and Sam was afraid she was going to pass out. Soon she started to breathe normally again. Sam and Wendy looked at each other and tried to laugh off the weird occurrence, but soon, Wendy sank down on the ground.

"I can't breathe!" she screamed. "Help me!"

"Wendy! Wendy!" Sam screamed her name over and over again as Wendy lay motionless on the restaurant floor.

(Watch before continuing-type in link if necessary! Crucial to watch video:

watch?v=QwEnXLFDZBg&t=0m10s )

Olivia was awakened once again by her young niece, Ella. Every morning, Ella sat by Olivia's bedside until she woke up, usually around 6:30. But Olivia didn't mind. She didn't get to see Ella very often and after Greg decided to fight for custody, Olivia began to cherish every moment she was able to see the beautiful girl.

"Aunt Liv, Mommy went out and I'm hungry. She made me some breakfast, but it doesn't taste good."

Olivia chuckled. "She was never that good of a cook. She tries."

Olivia got out of bed and went to make Ella some pancakes, Ella's favorite breakfast food. While Ella sat at the table eating, Rachel returned.

"Liv!" she cried. "I made Ella breakfast so you wouldn't have to!"

"Rachel, you and I both know that you can't make water taste good."

Rachel smiled sheepishly, knowing it was true. The two sisters went into another room while Ella continued eating.

Tears formed in Rachel's eyes. "Liv…I don't know what to do. Greg isn't a good parent for Ella. I've done everything to take her of her, and he doesn't move a muscle."

"I know. You are going to get through this. I've asked Broyles for a divorce attorney for you." She handed Rachel a business card. "This guy will do everything you need to divorce Greg and get custody of Ella."

Rachel took the card tentatively. The silence was interrupted by Olivia's cell phone ringing. Rachel smiled at her, knowing it was a case, and left to go sit with Ella.

"Dunham," Olivia answered into the phone.

"Get the Bishops and meet me at 10945 Hawlington Street."

"Yes, sir." She hung up the phone and called Astrid at Harvard lab where Dr. Walter Bishop and his son, Peter, were constantly working.

"Hey, Astrid. Have the guys come outside in a few minutes. Looks like we got another one."

As Olivia pulled up to the crime scene, she couldn't help but notice that Peter looked extremely handsome today. Things had happened between them that neither could explain. Olivia didn't really want to fall for anyone after seeing what Rachel was going through, but she knew that she felt something towards Peter.

The team approached Broyles outside of the restaurant that was now closed off to the public.

"Alright, what's going on?" Olivia asked.

"Woman, Wendy Parkinson, 27, died last night after a severe attack to her heart," Broyles explained in his deep, monotone voice.

"You mean it was just heart failure?"

"If it was, you wouldn't be here."

They all walked into the restaurant and at first look, the body looked slightly bulged and extremely pale. Walter immediately began to examine it. He felt Wendy's arms, legs, and torso.

"They're all enlarged," he mused.

"What do you think happened, Walter?" Olivia asked him, not expecting a real answer she would be able to understand.

"I have a theory. This woman seems to have enlarged veins and blood vessels, which may be the result of hypovolemic shock…but it doesn't appear that any blood left her body."

Olivia and Peter looked at each other as Walter became entranced with all the possibilities of what could've killed Wendy.

"And Walter goes into his thinking state which happens just about every case," Peter remarked. And there was the sarcasm Peter was famous for. She tried to hide her smile because secretly, she kind of liked it when he got sarcastic like that.

"I'll need the body taken back to the lab so I can thoroughly examine her," Walter said.

_Whatever you need, Walter, _Olivia thought.

As Walter and Astrid tried to prep the body for transport, Peter walked over to Olivia.

"Hey, are you alright?" he asked.

She smiled slightly. "Rachel is just torn apart by this whole divorce and custody thing, and I feel like I can't do anything to help her."

"You can help her just by being there for her. She needs you, and I'm pretty sure that's all she really wants from you."

"I want to do more than that."

"Olivia, you can't fix all of the problems in the world. Just do what Rachel needs you to do. Be there."

Olivia felt that tug in her heart again whenever Peter comforted her. She felt it strongest when she was in the tank, and Peter was forced to pull her out. She had hugged him, and he had pulled her close as he whispered words of encouragement to her. It was almost like he knew exactly what to say to her when the time came.

Back at Dr. Bishop's lab in the basement at Harvard, he and Astrid began the autopsy. He cut open into Wendy's arm first.

"That's strange," he said quietly.

"What?" Astrid asked. Dr. Bishop usually didn't tell her about all the findings he saw and she had to prod the answers out of him.

"All her blood vessels are ruptured."

"Is that what killed her?"

"I don't think so. I imagine the experience was quite unpleasant, but it probably wasn't what stopped her heart."

Walter examined that next.

"Anything unusual about her heart?" Astrid said.

"No, it appears it just stopped working. But why? What happened to this woman?"

Meanwhile, Olivia and Peter arrived at the home of Wendy's parents. Olivia knocked on the door and the two awkwardly stood there as always when waiting for someone to answer the door. A young woman soon appeared with short blonde hair that was graying and a tiny physique.

"Hi, uh, Olivia Dunham, FBI, and this is Peter Bishop," she said, flashing her badge. "Are you Wendy Parkinson's mother?"

"Yes," the woman answered. "Has something happened to her?"

"Um, may we come in?"

"Yes, of course."

Olivia explained what they found at the crime scene and reassured her that they were doing everything they could to find out who was responsible.

"I can't believe my baby is gone," Wendy's mother cried.

"Mrs. Parkinson, did you daughter have any illnesses?" Peter asked.

"Um, she had breathing problems sometimes, but it wasn't severe. Just every now and again, she would get a little short of breath. But within a few minutes she was fine. She didn't like it though because it limited her."

"Did she do anything to try to cure herself?" Olivia questioned.

"Well, Wendy was getting frustrated about these limitations. This breathing problem could not allow any extraneous activity. I think around two years ago, Wendy went to go visit a doctor who told her he could cure her and make her even better than before."

"Was this a case study?" Olivia continued.

"I believe so, yes. She was the first trial. She got very sick when she first started the drug, but from what I heard, it seemed to work."

"What was the name of this doctor?"

"Dr. Emerson Covill."

"Okay, and where is his office?"

"You've probably heard of it. It's at Massive Dynamic."

Peter and Olivia made eye contact. This was not the first time Massive Dynamic had been partially responsible for the case they were working. It was founded by William Bell, Walter's old science partner from before Walter was institutionalized. Over and over again, the name kept coming up, and usually it never meant good news.

"Dr. Emerson Covill experimented on Wendy," Olivia told Broyles in his office. "She was part of a drug-test to cure those with breathing problems."

"And the experiment was overseen by our favorite company, Massive Dynamic," Peter added.

Broyles looked up at both of them. "Go question him. Find out everything you can about this drug."

"Astro!" Walter called across the lab. Astrid sighed as Walter once again got her name wrong.

"Yes, Walter?" she answered back.

"I have a sudden craving for some coffee cake."

"I'll go check the cafeteria for some."

"Make sure it has lots of sugar on the top."

Astrid chuckled and left to go get Walter food as she always did every day. Walter walked back to Wendy Parkinson's body. After he examined her heart, he decided to look at the lungs. Each organ looked like they were suffocated and then shut down. But Walter couldn't understand why this was. He had tested her blood, and there were no traces of anything unusual.

"The project you're referring to was one of our shortest studies," Nina Sharp told Peter and Olivia. Nina was the one they talked to with every case, as she was the most important person at Massive Dynamic. The only person above her was William Bell. Olivia was pretty sure they liked each other, but she couldn't say for sure. "We were forced to start the human trials much too soon," Nina continued. "We saw extremely negative side effects, like the breathing condition worsening, fevers, and a low count of white blood cells."

"We need to speak with Dr. Emerson Covill. He was the scientist overseeing the project," Olivia told her. "He might be able to provide us with some answers."

Peter's cell phone went off, and he answered it as Nina gave Olivia the information about Dr. Covill.

"Bishop," he answered.

"Um, Peter," Astrid's voice answered. "I think Walter took some LSD again. He's acting more loopy than usual and told me he saw little blue birds in the lab a few seconds ago."

Peter sighed and rubbed his forehead with his hand. "It's okay, just let him wait it out. Have you found out anything about our little restaurant friend?"

"I think that's why Walter took the LSD. From the looks of it, her body just shut down. But he can't figure out why that happened."

"Alright, well, we're about to go talk to a doctor who knew her, so maybe we'll find out something else."

"Peter," Olivia called. "Let's go visit Covill."

"Dr. Covill," Olivia said as she and Peter sat in his office with him. "Tell us about the project you worked on two years ago. For those with breathing problems."

"Ah," he recalled. "That was one of my fonder ones. The purpose of the project was mainly for those with breathing problems and we were even going to give the drug to those in the Navy.

"The drug went straight to the medulla. That's the part of the brain that regulates your heartbeat and breathing. The longest a person can hold his breath is only for a few minutes. This drug lengthened that time for much, much longer. Hours, even. This helped those with breathing problems overcome the disability and breathe even better than anyone else. In the Navy, no one would have to worry about getting oxygen tanks set up, or worry about the fact that it might malfunction.

"Unfortunately, I was never able to test the drug on animals before the science board demanded results. We had to go straight to human trials. Wendy Parkinson was my first trial. I studied her for an extended period of time. She fell ill several times, but soon the drug began to work. I then worked with another subject, Raya Delgado. She agreed to participate in the study as well. But after the drug made her worse, I found it better to just shut down the project until I was able to conduct animal trials. It wasn't worth it to put all these people at risk."

"Dr. Covill, have you seen Raya recently?" Olivia asked.

"No, not since the project was shut down."

"We need all your information on her."

"Why? Did something happen to her?"

"Not her, Wendy," Peter answered. "She died in a restaurant last night."

Dr. Covill's face fell. "I liked Wendy. She could brighten up any room she walked into."

"That's why we need Raya's information. The sooner we find her, the sooner we can help her. We don't want her to end up like Wendy."

"I'll get her file." He returned shortly carrying a manila folder. "Here's everything you need to know."

"Thank you," Olivia said as she took the file. "We'll be in touch."

"Walter," Astrid said, waving her hand in front of Walter's face. "How are you feeling?"

"Never better," he replied.

"Well, I just talked to Peter on the phone. Apparently, Wendy was part of an experimental drug that helped the medulla work even better than it was supposed to."

Walter's face froze as it always did when he realized something. "Of course." He hopped up out of the chair he has been sitting in and went over to Wendy's body. He proceeded to cut open her scalp and started to examine her brain.

Even though Astrid had now been doing this kind of thing with Walter for a while now, she couldn't help but feel queasy at the sight of his work.

"Well this is interesting," Walter murmured. "Peter was right. Her medulla is completely drained. It looks like it was overloaded with information, presumably from the drug, and the medulla couldn't take it all, so it just shut down. This resulted in her blown blood vessels and why her heart and lungs simply stopped working. I believe she went into neurogenic shock as soon as it failed as a result from extremely low blood pressure and the lack of blood being delivered to the brain."

"This little drug just shut down that tiny portion of her brain and killed her?" Astrid asked, not so sure she believed that possible. Of course, that was one of the least strangest things she had experienced on this job.

"My dear, when it comes to Massive Dynamic, all things are possible." The room was silent for a few seconds before Walter added, "Would you be so kind as to find me some chicken fingers? I'm rather hungry."

"Only if you promise not to take any LSD again while I'm gone."

Olivia knocked on the door of Raya's house. Peter looked at her.

"When's the last time you slept?" he asked her.

"Excuse me?" she said, turning to face him.

"You look drained and you've got circles under your eyes." Olivia didn't answer. "I know you're worried about Rachel and Ella, but you're not going to be of any use to them if you're not sleeping. Besides, I need you focused so you can use your gun and save my hide if the occasion calls for it."

Olivia laughed. Same old Peter. Could turn a serious moment into a funny one in a matter of seconds.

A young girl opened the door. She was an 18-year-old with straight black hair. She was very skinny, and looked a little unhealthy, like she was starving herself. It occurred to Olivia that it might be a result of the drug she had taken. But what stuck out most to the two of them was that she was wearing a nasal cannula.

"Raya Delgado? Olivia Dunham, FBI, and this is Peter Bishop. We wanted to ask you a few questions."

"Am I in trouble or something?" the girl answered.

"That's what we're going to find out."

"Come on in."

Raya led them to her living room. "Don't worry about this," she told them pointing to the cannula. "I only wear it at home."

"Why do you need it?" Olivia asked.

"I have a lung condition, and sometimes I need extra oxygen. I refuse to wear this stupid thing around my friends, so I use it at home and then I'm fine for whenever I'm off of it."

Peter and Olivia felt sorry for her. They took for granted the air that they breathe everyday while others could never get enough of it.

"You were part of a project with Dr. Emerson Covill," Olivia continued.

"Yeah," Raya answered without smiling. "It was supposed to help me get rid of this thing, but it only made me get sicker. And then, I started feeling results. Just for one day, I was able to breathe just like everyone else."

Peter started to walk around as he always did while Olivia questioned someone. He was very observant and usually found something that would aid them in the case.

"Then," Raya continued, "the project was shut down, and I had to stop the drug."

"How long have you been seeing Dr. Covill?" Peter asked her.

"Um, while the project was going on…"

"No," he interrupted. "I mean after the project was shut down. How long have you been seeing him?"

Raya paused and sighed. "Every week about a month after the project shut down," she admitted. _He saw my planner, _she thought. _Why'd I leave that stupid thing out? _"Dr. Covill insisted that we abandon the project because the drug was hurting me. But I demanded to continue the medicine until it made me better. So I've been going to his office and he gives me small amounts of the drug. That's why I need the oxygen. The drug makes me worse for a while, but then I'm fine and I breathe normally."

"Raya, the drug is going to kill you. The other woman who was tested died recently," Olivia stated.

Raya fell silent and her eyes moistened. "But Dr. Covill never told me that was a possibility."

"Maybe he didn't know."

"So that's it? I'm going to die just like that woman?" Raya began to cry. "I just wanted to be normal. I wanted to live like all my friends do; live without limitations."

Peter sat across from her and took her hands in his. "Listen to me. We are going to do everything we can to help you. I promise."

Raya nodded, comforted by his words. Somehow, she knew everything was going to be okay.

"Alright, Peter, I'll tell him," Astrid said as she hung up her phone. "Walter!"

Walter sat on his stool, still eating and musing about Wendy's death.

"Walter, Peter and Olivia found another girl who was taking the drug. She was the only one, but they need a cure soon before she dies like Wendy."

"Well, I don't even know where to start," Walter remarked. "It's not like I'm making a meal where the directions are laid out for me. I would need days to find a cure."

"She doesn't have days. She's been taking the drug for a long time and she probably has one day at the most." There was silence all throughout the lab. "I'll help you, Walter. Just tell me what to do."

Olivia went back to Dr. Covill's office the next day while Peter went to pick Raya up to take her to the lab where Walter had hopefully found a cure.

"Dr. Covill," Olivia demanded as she burst into this office door. "Why'd you lie to me?"

"Excuse me?"

"You told me you hadn't seen Raya Delgado since the project was shut down, but she admitted to seeing you every week where you gave her more doses of the drug."

Dr. Covill remained silent.

"Did you keep seeing Wendy too?"

"They both were satisfied with the end results and wanted to continue. I advised against it, but I couldn't turn them away. They kept coming to me asking for more doses of the drug, and I gave it to them."

"Wendy Parkinson is dead because of that drug and Raya is going to die if you don't tell me how to counteract it."

"There's no way. She'd have to stop taking doses, but by now the drug is fully in the bloodstream and it would take weeks for it to leave the body."

"She doesn't have that kind of time. Is there any other way?"

"I don't know…No one was supposed to get hurt. We were just trying to help."

Dr. Covill held his head in his hands, ashamed of what he had done, and could never take back.

Raya walked outside with Peter, no nose cannula on, to his awaiting car. Raya thought that Peter was very good looking, and was slightly embarrassed that he had seen her with her cannula. On the other hand, maybe it scored her some sympathy points. Peter helped her into the passenger seat, and she smiled to herself.

"Be honest with me," she boldly stated as they got on the road. Her voice lowered. "Am I going to die?"

Peter sighed. No matter what he said, Raya knew the truth.

"It's okay," she said. "I can't change the choice I made to keep going back there."

"Raya, everyone makes stupid choices," Peter told her. "Believe me I know." Raya laughed. "And sometimes there's no fixing the outcome of them. But I told you, we're going to help you."

"Do you think I'm a freak?"

Peter laughed. "With this job, believe me, you are the most normal thing I've seen in a while!"

For a moment, Raya forgot she was dying. She was enjoying life. She just wanted this moment to last forever. Here with Peter as he made her feel better and got her through the rough ordeal she was going through.

They pulled up to Harvard and got out of the car.

"What are we doing here?" she asked.

"My father has a lab in the basement here. He's been looking for a cure for you."

They walked across the quad to the building that held Walter's lab. Raya desired to be close to Peter, so she walked almost in sync with him. Suddenly Raya slowed as her heartbeat quickened to an enormous pace. She thought her heart was about to explode. Her eyes moistened as she assumed that this was how she would die.

"Raya?" Peter asked as he turned around to look at her.

She looked at him. "It's okay," she said, her heartbeat slowing to a normal one. "I'm fine." She smiled, but collapsed on the ground.

"Raya!" Peter ran over to her.

Raya started screaming. All of her muscles in her body ached at once, and her lungs felt like they were being squeezed tightly. "I can't breathe! Peter!"

"Raya! Focus! Try to breathe. Just try," he said, trying to keep her alive.

Raya passed out from the lack of oxygen. Peter administered CPR, hoping that it would delay the medulla's failure for just a little while. He slid his arm under her knees and his other arm around her waist, and ran towards the lab, ignoring the stares from passing college students.

"Walter!" he cried as he burst through the lab door. "Please tell me you've found a cure!"

"What happened?" Walter exclaimed.

"Her medulla's in the process of failing. We need the cure now!" He set her down on an examination table.

"Peter," Astrid said. "Walter and I stayed up all night, but we couldn't think of anything! All our trials failed!"

"Please, Walter," Peter begged. He couldn't bear the thought of letting a young girl like her die when he knew there had to be something to stop it from happening.

Walter went into his panic/calm mode. Walter never had a full out panic mode, but it was always a cross between a sense of panic and then his calm side. He tried to think of anything that would stop the drug from reaching the medulla. "Antagonists," he mumbled.

"What are you talking about?" Peter asked frantically. He looked at Raya. She was becoming paler by the second.

"We need an antagonist. The drug is acting as a neurotransmitter to the brain. If we can find an antagonist, we can prohibit the drug from reaching the medulla."

"I'm confused," Astrid said.

"We need something that will stop the drug from reaching the medulla. If we find the right chemical, it can stop the drug from working," Peter translated.

Walter quickly flipped through Raya's file from Dr. Covill. "The drug uses excess amounts of oxygen," he noticed. "That's it! That's why this reaction happens. The drug produces far too much oxygen in the lungs, heart, and blood vessels. It helped the lungs for a little while because more oxygen means you can breathe easier. But by taking the drug as often as she did, in combination with wearing an oxygen tank, she put so much oxygen in the body, it blocks all the blood vessels and deprives all the major organs of the blood it needs."

"Walter, focus!" Peter said. "How do we counteract the drug?"

"The oxygen levels will lower if we can get some carbon dioxide into her blood stream. Right now, there's hardly any carbon dioxide, only oxygen."

Walter began to furiously mix a few different chemicals and managed to produce liquid carbon dioxide. Peter put the liquid into a syringe and inserted it into Raya's arm. After a few seconds, Peter put his hand on her cheek and rubbed it with his thumb. Ever so slowly, color started to return to Raya's face. Suddenly, she inhaled deeply and sharply and bolted upright. It reminded Peter of the time he had to pull Olivia from the tank and she was near shock and could barely breathe. She had felt so cold. He had pulled her close to his body, hoping to warm her, as she clutched onto him. All he had wanted to do was to hug her and hold her close so she wouldn't feel so frigid.

Peter snapped back to the present. Raya was coughing and gasping for breath.

"Whoa, Raya, breathe," he said calmly, as he grabbed onto her arm and squeezed her hand. "Breathe."

She looked into his beautiful eyes, comforted by his warm gaze. "Oh, Peter," she whispered. Peter hugged her, noticing how much she was shaking. She started to cry softly, so Peter hugged her tighter, knowing all she needed was that kind of encouragement.

"You did it, Walter," Astrid told him.

Raya gripped onto Peter's arms, still trying to regain her breathing, realizing how close of a brush with death she had just experienced.

"Mommy," Ella whined to her mother. "I want Aunt Liv to make me dinner."

Rachel laughed. "You know, I take offense to that! But not too much because I can understand why!" She grabbed her daughter playfully and started to tickle her while she giggled and tried to get away.

The doorbell rang, and Rachel went to go answer it, Ella tagging along behind her. Rachel looked through the peephole in the door and smiled.

"Hey, Peter!" Rachel found herself rather attracted to Peter, especially after the whole thing with Greg. But she knew where his heart belonged. "Olivia's not here right now, she's getting groceries."

"I actually wanted to talk to you," he said.

Ella ran up and hugged his legs. Peter laughed at the sign of affection. "Hi, Peter," she said in her cute little voice.

He knelt down to her eye level. "Hey, Ella! How are you?"

"I'm good. I've missed seeing you. You're fun!"

He smiled. "How about you let your mom and I talk for a little while?"

"Okay," she said, with a hint of disappointment in her face.

Rachel's heart quickened. "Why do you want to talk to me?"

"Olivia told me everything about you and Greg."

Rachel's happy face immediately disintegrated and she felt the tears returning.

"Look, I wanted to tell you that you're not alone in this," he told her. "Olivia is trying her best to help you, and if you want, you can always call me."

Rachel smiled, pleased that Peter would let her call him if she was in trouble. "Thanks, Peter."

They smiled at each other, and this warmed Rachel's heart.

She didn't know if Peter had heard it before, but she knew he needed to know, or at least admit it.

"Peter," she added before he left. "Why don't you just tell her?"

"What are you talking about?"

"You and Liv. I can see the way you look at her."

Peter was slightly embarrassed that his facial expressions towards Olivia hadn't been as discreet as he thought. What if that meant Olivia noticed too? "I don't know, I mean, after this whole thing with John, I'm not sure she's ready to start a new relationship."

"Liv looks at you the same way."

Peter's stomach did a little flip. Could it really be true? Was Olivia attracted to him like he was her? When they had first met, Olivia demanded to go into a rusty old tank to share consciousness with her boyfriend, John Scott, who had been critically injured in an explosion. Olivia had needed to strip down to her underclothes and had electrodes and an electric probe attached to her. The electric probe was an extremely painful device, and when Walter inserted it into Olivia's neck, she had fallen over into Peter's arms, gasping from the pain. As she clung onto him to try to steady herself, Peter felt the first little pang of feelings for her. He had been touching her waist, and he felt her beautiful soft skin. Her golden hair flowed down her head, and he had realized just how pretty she was.

"Why don't you just tell her you really feel?" Rachel asked.

Later that night, after Rachel and Ella went to bed, Olivia stayed up for a little while longer. She took a drink out of the refrigerator and sat down at the small table. She held her head in her hands. After the events of the last few days, she was absolutely drained. Peter's face filled her mind. He had told her what had happened to Raya, and she could only picture what he had done for her, knowing it was a compassionate, spur-of-the-moment act. She felt herself drawn towards him more and more each day.

After she had been kidnapped by Mitchell Loeb, and started investigating a murderer who killed people with a cold virus, Peter had mentioned that they needed to find out what the kidnappers wanted with Olivia. Olivia had said, "Who cares about me? I want to know who's next!" To which Peter had replied, "I care about you." Though Olivia had looked at him like he was crazy for saying that, deep inside, her heart had skipped a beat.

And just a few weeks ago, while she had been having nightmares about killing people who were then murdered in real life, she had been in absolute panic mode, running on no sleep and terrified that she really was killing people in her sleep. After overreacting in a hospital room, Peter had taken her out in the hall and tried to calm her down. Overwhelmed by all of the events happening and emotions swirling around inside her, Peter had put his hand to her cheek as she began to cry. She had laid her head on his shoulder as he gently rubbed the back of her head. She had felt so reassured, knowing someone was there for her.

Olivia didn't know how to explain what she was feeling for Peter. Her thoughts drifted back to when they were talking about Olivia's lack of sleep, and how she couldn't help Rachel if she was tired all the time. She slowly walked to her bedroom. Peter's words still running through her mind, she turned off all her alarms, locked the door, and crawled into bed, confident that she would get a good night's sleep, and be fully equipped to help Rachel through the days ahead.


End file.
